Sunday Times clue writing contest

The results of contest 1405 with a full report on the best entries, and details of this week’s contest

Results: Clue writing contest 1405: Cheekbones

First of all, apologies for misstating the closing date of contest 1407 (Slow
motion) last week. As most of you have probably worked out, the correct
closing date is August 6, not August 13.

The most noticeable feature of this competition was the synonyms for
“cheek”=impudence which are also facial features or body parts – lip, face
and neck. These were exploited successfully and any of the good clues would
have been a worthy winner.

Winner

Paul Taylor, ManchesterA bit of Botox injected into lip and one’s other facial features

This clue tells a convincing story in the surface reading, and the strong
surface helps to disguise a couple of seemingly simple wordplay elements –
“bit of” for a first letter, and “one’s” representing itself, where the
disguise is helped by the frequent use of “one” for other purposes.

Good clues

Jeremy Christmas, OxfordFace doctor may be needed for these
This is an additive clue – face = impudence = CHEEK, doctor = “BONES”. The
whole clue is the definition, so this is an all-in-one.

John Bevan, London N10From lip onwards, inverted snob has English features
In this case, lip=CHEEK is followed by E=English, inside a reversal of SNOB.
There’s a small weakness in the surface — if talking about facial features,
something like “upwards” seems much more likely than “onwards”.

Sir Harold Walker, London SW1Surgeon tags lip to create another facial feature
This time, “Surgeon” is used to indicate BONES, and the informal “to follow
closely” meaning for “tag” is exploited to achieve a very convincing surface
reading.

Derrick Betts, Coverack, CornwallParts of the head and neck seen by doctor
This is another version of CHEEK+BONES, with another indication for “cheek”
and another convincing surface meaning.

AM Price, Maidenhead, BerkshireThey’re in your face — and are impertinent to doctor
Another version of the same structure, this time using the verbal form of
“cheek”, and a definition that makes the surface reading very convincing.

Colin Mackie, Upton, WirralImpudence remains perhaps something to help raise a smile
This time, the synonym for “cheek” is not a body part, “remains” indicates
BONES, and the definition tells us what cheekbones do or can be imagined as
doing (I haven’t used an anatomical reference book to check my strong
impression that some muscles involved in smiling are connected to the
cheekbones).

Will Edwyn-Jones, Shaftesbury, DorsetFacially distinctive pair of brass dice
This clue uses original indications for “cheek” and “bones”, and “Facially
distinctive pair” as the definition. As dice have faces, “facially
distinctive” makes reasonable sense in the context of “brass dice”. I
wondered how often dice were made of brass, but a Google search for “brass
dice” produced more hits than I expected.

Comments on some other clues

Lip is visible on skeletons in these features?
The cryptic reading is clear, but there’s a surface weakness — although
“bones” could mean several skeletons, one skeleton seems more convincing in
the context of a single lip.

Nerve of leading bankers getting honest insiders to face constituents
The surface reading is about financial industry troubles, but in this context
“constituents” instead of something like “shareholders” looks a bit odd, and
the two two-letter words don’t fit well in the cryptic reading – CHEEK is
“nerve” but not “nerve of”, and “to” as a link between wordplay and
definition is not a favourite of mine or (as far as I can recall) our
setters.

Revolutionary doctor’s around weekly at centre for facial structuring
This clue uses EK = “weekly at centre”, inside CHE (Guevara) = revolutionary,
BONES=doctor. This is fine, but the surface reading is weakened a bit by two
choices required for the cryptic reading that could be different –
“revolutionary” as the description of the medic, and “weekly” as his
frequency of attendance.

Buttock fillets making prominent facial features?
Buttock for “cheek” is a lively choice and the cryptic reading makes sense,
but the surface reading is too surreal to compete against other more natural
ones.

You’d have a long face without it
This clue seems to make a fundamental mistake, but the text of the email
entry suggests that the mistake was made earlier — the word clued is shown
as “cheekbone”.

Clue writing contest 1408: Cramped

Readers are invited to compose their own clues for the word above. Clues must
be original and cryptic, of a standard similar to those in the Sunday Times
Crossword.